SEARCHING FOR SALES: Nacho Hernandez knows that thinking like your customers is key to successfully marketing via search engines.

60 ENTREPRENEUR In the Click By Catherine Seda

ou can’t resist the temptation. Fixated on ample, if you type a keyword into MSN Search your computer screen, you anxiously type on ’s consumer information and enter- Ykeywords relevant to your business into tainment site (www.msn.com), the Web site list- your favorite . A list of search results ings displayed could be from Inktomi, Microsoft appears. You cringe as you spot several competitors, or Overture. Overture provides search results not then grumble because your company’s Web site only to MSN Search, but also to AltaVista and is nowhere to be seen. Where is it? That depends. Yahoo! Could a top site on Overture then appear Where is your search engine marketing strategy? as a top site on a distribution partner’s site? Yes. Gone are the days Unfortunately, these distribution relationships when adding keywords change frequently, making it difficult to deter- want all the right people to in meta tags to your mine exactly where results come from. site produced rankings. The challenging part, however, is figuring out how notice your business? then you Search engine marketing to land a top position in the search engines. There has evolved into a com- are two complementary yet completely different plex and competitive types of methods: optimization and advertising. need to make the most of today’s program. It’s also prof- Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to en- itable—according to a hancing your Web site design to make it more ap- March 2003 report by pealing to crawler-based search engines. An auto- hottest marketing method— Piper Jaffray senior re- mated robot, also referred to as a spider, is sent out search analyst Safa to crawl the Web looking for site pages to add to search engine optimization. Rashtchy, online search the search engine’s database. A mathematical al- is the most cost-effective gorithm then determines the ranking of pages in direct-marketing method. the database for the keywords consumers use. These The average cost per lead from search is 29 cents, rankings are referred to as natural or organic listings. far less than e-mail (50 cents), the Yellow Pages ($1.18), Search engine advertising, on the other hand, banner ads ($2.00) and direct mail ($9.94). enables you to buy listings for your keywords. Gather your Web design and marketing staff; both Positions achieved this way are referred to as paid teams are required. Understanding search engine or sponsored listings. The most popular program marketing basics will help your team execute a in this category is pay-for-placement. These pro- strategy in-house or outsource it to specialists. The grams typically allow advertisers to open an ac- CHULMAN sooner your site is visible for relevant keywords, count for $5 to $50, then bid on keywords for a

C. S the sooner future customers will find your company. minimum amount of 5 or 10 cents per click. Ad- vertisers outbid each other for a higher position COTT How Do Search Engines Work? by increasing their bids by 1 cent per click. Only © S Many business owners are unaware that search when a consumer clicks your listing is your ac- HOTO

P engines feed their results to each other. For ex- count debited.

AUGUST 2004 61 Are you disappointed to learn that 30-year-old co-founder of online Mexi- “The credibility boost is huge,” search engines don’t magically and ob- can grocery store MexGrocer.com, a says Gary Salzman, 47-year-old co- jectively find the “best” sites on the Web? La Jolla, California, firm that projects founder of coffee resource retailer site That’s understandable. However, it was 2004 sales to hit more than $1 million. WholeLatteLove.com. The Victor, New always possible to influence search re- “A majority of our customers are York-based business projects 2004 sults. Today, it simply costs more. Yet, English-speaking Americans, but sales of more than $10 million. “Con- for companies willing to invest the time most use Spanish keywords because sumers see that natural listings are and money, it’s well worth it. The plan they want the more authentic prod- awarded to highly relevant sites. That’s begins with the right set of keywords. ucts. So they’ll search for ‘salsa verde’ the match they want.” instead of ‘green sauce,’” Hernandez To make your site relevant for your Making Keywords Count says. “While we market hundreds of keywords, it’s important to realize that If you have the wrong set of terms, keywords equally split between Span- sites don’t compete against other sites your site won’t rank well in algorithm- ish and English, we were surprised to for rankings. It’s Web page against Web based search engines. Plus, you’ll waste see [that] 440 percent more traffic and page. Therefore, each site page needs money on pay-per-placement pro- 200 percent more sales come from the to be assigned a set of keywords. Fo- grams by attracting browsers, not buy- Spanish words.” cus on the pages that have valuable ers. To create an effective list of key- Of course, if nobody is looking content for your visitors and are good words, start with these suggestions: for certain keywords, it’s pointless to for new visitors to land on first. A few Company names: Start with the promote those. That’s why a popu- places your keywords need to be in- name of your company, products and larity check is important. Search en- clude: services. Include misspellings and gine marketers typically use Over- Meta tags: This tactic alone has ab- plural forms of words, if appropriate. ture’s free Search Term Suggestion solutely no impact on your rankings, Themes: Consider related words Tool (www.overture.com) and the but your keywords still need to be in the your customers might use to describe subscription-based program Word- meta title, description and keyword tags of each site page you’d like ranked. The page title get professional help and description are often used as the Web site listing in the search results. Do you prefer to let a team of specialists worry to define spam, then refer to your resources to Alternative text (ALT tag): about fluctuating algorithms and bids? You’re see if experts agree or disagree. Mouse over an image, and not alone. However, finding a quality search Avoid responding to e-mail spam. The “Get you may see a text box ap- engine marketing firm is challenging, espe- a number-one position for $99”spam is likely from pear if the Web designer cially for search engine optimization (SEO), companies that will spam the search engines, too. has used alternative text. because much of it happens behind the scenes, Speak to client references. Ask them to Try to use a different, but and you can’t easily tell if a company is using describe their experiences, results and recom- related, phrase for each ethical tactics. Here are a few tips: mendations for working with the company ALT tag on a page. Find the experts. Read articles and books, you’re interviewing. Page copy: The keywords and attend conferences to identify the compa- Outsource. Some companies manage their you want your site to rank nies with strong industry visibility. Even if own paid placement campaigns in-house while well for must be in your they’re not good matches for you, they could other companies manage SEO. Find out what page copy. The thought is, recommend other reputable firms. your options are. if your site visitors can see Interview firms. Don’t be afraid to quiz com- Programs and pricing vary tremendously in them, then your page is rel- panies about their marketing philosophies, this industry. However, with a little research, evant for those terms. process, tools, reporting and results. Ask them you’ll find the right marketing partner. Hyperlinks within your site: Don’t link “click here” copy to other pages within your business. People looking for an tracker (www.wordtracker.com). your site. Hyperlink keyword phrases automobile insurance company might These tools reveal how many people instead, because search engines type in “car insurance” or “auto in- search for your keywords. Moreover, follow these links and the keywords surance.” Perhaps drivers are likely to these tools and AdWords’ free in them. switch insurance providers when they Keyword Suggestions tool (https:// Link popularity is also a chief in- buy a new car or used car, which adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd= gredient in an SEO campaign. Your would be good terms, too. keywordsandbox) will provide sug- site needs to link to other related sites Profile your competitors: Your com- gestions of related phrases consumers and, more important, well-ranked and petitors are excellent sources of ideas. use. Finalize your list to include rel- content-relevant sites should link to Study the keywords in their Web sites evant yet popular keywords. yours. Run a search for your keywords and their metatags. From your browser in Google or (www.teoma. toolbar, click on “View,” and then se- Getting Optimal Results com) and evaluate the natural listings. lect “Source.” If they’re using metatags, Modifying your site to please the Contact sites that aren’t direct com- you’ll see keywords listed at the top search engine spiders can be tedious. petitors, and offer to trade links or buy of the page. Be prepared to wait weeks or months one. Marketleap (www.marketleap. Then, brainstorm ideas about how for your site’s natural rankings to im- com) has a free Link Popularity Check your customers are looking for your prove. Although top listings aren’t tool which shows you how many pages business. “Think like your customers,” guaranteed, time-consuming efforts link to yours and how many link to recommends Nacho Hernandez, can pay off. your competitors.

62 ENTREPRENEUR taboo tactics You’re not done yet. Once your site is optimized, a majority of search en- gines need to be notified to crawl your There are good and bad search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Good methods site. Unfortunately, most search en- can improve your rankings. Bad tactics put your site in danger of losing rankings, get- gines now require an inclusion fee. ting kicked out of the search engines’ databases, and possibly being banned forever. It may be a per-URL fee, a fixed per- The following activities are considered spam, and, if caught, your site could pay the click fee on any site rankings you penalties: achieve, or a combination of both. Ink- 1.Stuffing keywords in your meta tags: Repeating a keyword too many times tomi, Overture and Teoma are exam- in your meta tags is a red flag. Study other top-ranked sites to see what seems to ples. Google is still free and will index be an acceptable range. your site on its own; however, you can 2.Hiding keywords: For example, avoid hiding text on your pages by making it the use the “Add URL” form if your site same color as your background. isn’t in its database. 3.Using tiny text: Think tiny text is too difficult to read? Maybe by your visitors, but “Analyze, optimize, submit, moni- not by spiders. tor, then repeat the process,” says Shari 4.Using redirects: This code is placed on a Web page to send visitors to another page Thurow, webmaster and marketing di- without the visitors clicking any links. rector of SEO firm Grantastic Designs 5.Linking with free-for-all sites: These sites link to each other for the sole purpose and author of Search Engine Visibility. of improving their link popularity. Don’t link to or from them. “Getting top-10 positions and main- These aren’t the only dangerous SEO tactics. But they’re some of the oldest and taining them is an ongoing process. A most obvious forms of spam, so avoid using them. site should always get consistent, high- quality traffic from the search engines,” Thurow adds. “It’s also an ongoing or group of keywords, then designate such as Atlas OnePoint (formerly Go challenge to determine what com- a landing page for each keyword or Toast, www. atlasonepoint.com) petitors are doing to achieve search group of keywords. Your ad listings and Did-it.com even offer tools that engine visibility.” will be live as soon as editors approve manage your bids based on your Thurow recommends evaluating them. Typically, these listings are cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale goals. site statistics reports monthly. Once placed under a “Sponsored Listing” Pay-per-click is still time-consuming your site is fully optimized and sub- type of header to set them apart from to manage, but at least the results are mitted to the search engines, main- natural listings. instantaneous and often reward- tenance can usually be done on a quar- On FindWhat.com, Kanoodle.com ing. For example, these campaigns terly basis. and Overture, positions are awarded added more than 60 percent to Is your anxiety level increasing yet? to the highest bidder. A one-penny WholeLatteLove.com’s total growth Don’t worry. There’s a quick way to bid over an advertiser moves your in 2003. get any position you want. Just buy it. listing above his. On Google AdWords, Tools alone won’t improve your positions are given based on the conversion rates. Compelling ad list- Buying Your Way to the Top combination of bid amount and click- ings and landing pages that persuade Pay-for-placement is the easy way to through rate. That means the high- people to complete an intended action get a top position in search results. est bid doesn’t automatically get the make or break your results. Open an account, then choose your number-one spot. Consumers are “Don’t misrepresent your offer,” keywords, set keyword bids, write a part of the voting process. Ad list- warns Salzman. He noticed that out of title and description for each keyword ings that aren’t clicked will drop. 60 competing ad listings for “espresso Wondering how machine reviews,” only 38 percent often to update your showed what they said they would bids? Watch your in their ad copy. “Consumers make competitors. If they snap judgments in seconds. Lose perform daily or their trust, and they’ll back out of weekly updates, you’ll your site to click on your competi- probably need to do tors’ listings. The back button is not the same to keep the your friend.” positions you want. Don’t panic over this crash course Maintaining a top- in search engine marketing. In addi- three to top-five po- tion to the resources listed here, you sition is important, can turn to SearchEngineWatch.com, because those gen- the educational hub for search engine erally appear as spon- marketers. You can also meet with sored listings across search engine representatives and the distribution net- marketing experts at Jupitermedia’s work. That means Search Engine Strategies conferences, greater visibility and or breathe easier by outsourcing resulting traffic. your campaigns. Just make sure your Bid management Web site can be found by using rele- tools such as BidRank vant keywords. Your customers are and PPC Pro auto- waiting. EXTRA PERK: Optimizing your site to improve natural rankings mate this process CATHERINE SEDA is Entrepreneur’s “Net Sales”columnist.

Photo Courtesy: WholeLatteLove.com Courtesy: Photo may be tedious, but it’s worth the effort, says Gary Salzman. for you. Companies

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